PDGray

I have probably mentioned this somewhere on the boards before, but some 30 years ago I was asked to assess a collection in a neighboring town (South Mississippi). I arrived at the house and there were roughly 10,000 books the man had in his living room for me to take a look at. There were stacks and stacks of the books. Some had been in various random boxes for years at that point. The man had collected since he was young. Books seemed to start in the mid-1950s and ran through the mid-1980s. Immediately I was drawn to the X-Men stack. It started at about issue 150 or so and went sequentially down all the way to #1. The books were absolutely gorgeous, as if they had never been read. Then I found the FFs, again starting somewhere in the 170s and it ran all the way down to #1. The same thing with ASM, Avengers, DD, Journey into Mystery (although not down to 1). The DCs were a bit more spotty, but they were there. The Marvels though were absolutely stunning. Full gloss on all the covers, almost none of the Marvel chipping. The pages were still very fresh to the touch. Essentially, the guy had read the books once, then stacked them by title with the lowest issue on the bottom and stacked them up from there. Far too soon I was out of time and had to leave, but before I left, he took me to another room in the house where there were even more books, probably at least 5,000 more. I have no idea what he did with the books, but he was the original owner and today I would have no doubt that it would be a pedigree collection. I have little doubt it would rival anything I have heard of or seen to date. It was the single greatest collection I have ever seen. PDG

What a topic!! I collect everything. I have hundreds of hot wheels cars. I have a few fast real cars. (Trans Am and my Ferrari) I have maybe 100 action figures. I have probably 75 watches (these get pricey quick) Dungeons and Dragons figures. Games. DVD/Blu-Ray movies - probably 4-5,000 at this point. And more that I probably can't remember at the moment. PDG

Does anyone have the master list of books in this collection? There is one I am considering, but am not sure that it's a real Larson. Thanks! PDG

What a great book!! I don't have a Vancouver yet. PDG

Looking at a few Big Apple books. How much of a premium should I realistically expect to pay for one these days? PDG

I'll add my one copy. One of the first pedigreed books I picked up - I think it was the third overall pedigree I added to my collection. PDG

I would love to find a book from this pedigree. Does anyone know how many books belong to this collection? PDG

I have a pretty good run of FFs from 22-135. I am looking for a 20 & 21 just because I want to complete those - then maybe work my way back from there. I don't need high grade or pedigree copies - I want lower to mid-grade books to fill in the run. Any chance anyone here has a lead on those couple of books?

Yeah, that would have been great! I wasn't a DD fan at the time - it was a "lower tier" book relative to any other of the Marvel #1s from the 60s (and still is I suppose although it's gained some ground lately). I would say the DD1 was probably a 4.0-5.0 by today's standards - so definitely a significant book. I certainly wouldn't have turned it away, but that other collection will probably never be topped by a collection I come across in my life. I think it would be $8-10,000,000 easy today. I would love to know what came of any of those books or either of those collections. Too bad I won't ever know. PDG

So, I have two stories. 1. Back in the early 90s a friend of mine knew I collected comics. He had a friend of his that lived in a neighboring town who said he had some comics and wanted me to go look at them. So, my friend took me over to see what this guy had. He lived in a small house, next to railroad tracks, not in a great neighborhood. We walked into this small living room and he had about 5,000 books scattered around the room. Most were in simple cardboard boxes stacked everywhere. As we dug through this collection I found complete runs of Avengers, X-Men, Fantastic Four, ASM, Daredevil, and much, much more. The guy had purchased them new, read them once, and sorted them in order - ALL STARTING at #1s. We found a few of them had been beaten up, but all the keys were there and simply 9.0 or higher condition. Simply the most amazing collection I have ever seen. It was WELL beyond what I would or could have ever paid for them. Once we ran out of time he took us to another room filled with at least another 5,000 books, then still another room with another roughly 5,000 books. A total of at least 15,000 books in pristine condition which really dated back to the late 1950s that I saw and ran through at least the mid-1980s. I never had a chance to look at the 10,000 books in the other rooms, but that first 5,000 was worth at least $300,000 in 1992 by my estimation. I don't know what happened to that collection or the guy that owned it - but to me and based on what I know now - that would have made an astonishing pedigree. 2. In 1993 I was still in the same town and my roommate worked at a hospital. He told me about a lady that he worked with that had some comics and she wanted to have me look at them. My roomie came home one day with the books, carried in a bright red, beaten up milk crate. They were loose and bouncing around in the crate. It was maybe 30-40 books. Most were bronze age books that were in really rough shape, but in the middle were two of note. One was a Daredevil 1 in mid-grade shape, while the other - oddly enough was a Detective 38! It was a very unusual small collection with no connection between the books. I made a few phone calls and got her an offer of $50,000 for the 'Tec 38. I sent the contact information and inquired what she wanted for the DD1. Again, they disappeared into the night. I have no idea if they sold the book or if it is still floating around town somewhere. I really wish I knew... PDG

I would take it no matter which age you called it - silver/gold - call it junk - I would be happy to add it to my collection. But as a matter of the question - I would consider it the first Silver Age book by tradition, although there were other books that didn't really transition to the Silver Age style until much later. PDG

Pass on this one. If Gunn is going to re-establish the DCU, then later introduce the character, it MIGHT stand a chance for a solo movie. But definitely not yet. PDG

Yes, it's the Heroic Comics 70. I probably overpaid for it, but in building my pedigree collection (working on one book from each pedigree) it has almost been the only Salida I have seen available. It's graded at a 9.2. PDG

Interesting to know and learn. Thank you for all the responses to my question. The book I have acquired is slabbed, so I am going to miss out on that aspect unfortunately. For the longest time though, I was really against slabbing any of my books or buying them slabbed strictly because I wanted to be able to handle and read them. I am finding though that having the slabbed books will give a specific reference point for my family one day because absolutely none of them seem to be interested in my books after I am gone. PDG

Sorry for the bit of a gravedig, but I just acquired a Salida for my collection - it's not in my hands just yet, but I wanted to learn more and more about this particular pedigree and I came across this thread. I will post a photo once it arrives so it can add to the discussion. @buttock - in this post you said that "nobody in their right mind is slabbing Salidas." Please forgive my ignorance, but why would this be the case? I did notice that VERY few of the Salidas in this thread were slabbed, so I am curious. As always, I look to learn from everyone here. Thank you! PDG

This might not QUITE fit into this category, but I just got this Jumbo 40 in. It's a CBCS 1.8 - so not CGC. CGC has 10 in the census, CBCS has 2 in the census. I thought it was an interesting book and wanted to share anyway. PDG

There is a Toledo pedigree?? Or am I misunderstanding this? Keep in mind I am learning here, so very interested in this. PDG

Is this being marked a new pedigree or just a collection? What an amazing collection!! PDG

I only have one SOTI book, but would love to find more. I have been fascinated with the story of Wertham for 30+ years, but only recently found one of the books he referenced. I even did a speech on SOTI when I was in college. I have a CGC graded copy of Dagar Desert Hawk 21. PDG

I found the 2 and that is WELL out of my league!! Wow, what a great book though!!! PDG

Yep, this is exactly my concern with this one. As much as I want a Larson book, this doesn't appear to be the one for me. Anyone got any leads?? PDG

Absolutely 100% agree with you - logically. Then there is that other part of me that can't help but wondering how CGC came to this conclusion? How did someone follow the provenance to get it to this point? Or it is just a CGC error? I looked up some of those books that have been listed on ebay as part of the "Pennsylvania" pedigree - books like a New Mutants #11 and, after entering the certification number - they all came back showing without the pedigree. This book does show it, as in the listing above. This curiosity is killing me - ha!! PDG

Thank you for the historical data! That is very important for me and I had no basis to judge that info. Seller wants about 2x that for this book. If it were a real Larson, then I would be ok with that. But if it's not, then I would feel left out holding the bag. The other issue is that I never sell. I am not a flipper. I just buy the books and hang on to them forever. I think I have sold maybe 10 books ever - and I kind of felt bad and regretted selling them. PDG

I had not looked up the certificate number, but I just did and what I found is located below. CGC Does indeed list it as a Larson - so, any thoughts on this? I agree it is very strange, so I just don't know what to make of it. Should I continue to pursue it? Or should I just drop it altogether? By the way, thanks for the certification link - I didn't know I could do that!! PDG CGC Cert # 3860099018 Title Gene Autry Comics Issue 6 Issue Date 3/43 Issue Year 1943 Publisher Fawcett Publications Grade 8.0 Page Quality WHITE Grade Date 09/01/2021 Grade Category Universal Pedigree Larson Art Comments Till Goodman cover Grader Notes light writing top of front cover small, very light crease right bottom of front cover spine stress lines cover

I had not looked up the certificate number, but I just did and what I found is located below. CGC Does indeed list it as a Larson - so, any thoughts on this? I agree it is very strange, so I just don't know what to make of it. Should I continue to pursue it? Or should I just drop it altogether? PDG CGC Cert # 3860099018 Title Gene Autry Comics Issue 6 Issue Date 3/43 Issue Year 1943 Publisher Fawcett Publications Grade 8.0 Page Quality WHITE Grade Date 09/01/2021 Grade Category Universal Pedigree Larson Art Comments Till Goodman cover Grader Notes light writing top of front cover small, very light crease right bottom of front cover spine stress lines cover